The 2020–21 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final and ISU Junior Grand Prix Final was scheduled to be held from December 10–13, 2020 at the

Capital Indoor Stadium The Capital Indoor Stadium () is an indoor arena in 56 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, China that was built in 1968. It hosted matches between national table tennis teams of China and the United States in 1971; these matches were part of the ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The combined event was to be the culmination of two international series — the Grand Prix of Figure Skating and the Junior Grand Prix; however, there was no Junior Grand Prix Final, as the Junior Grand Prix was cancelled. Medals were to be awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles,

pair skating Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating ...

, and

ice dance Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...

on the senior and junior levels. It was originally intended as a test event for the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the event was first postponed and then removed from being hosted in China altogether. The International Skating Union tried searching for a replacement host and alternative dates, before definitively cancelling the event on December 10, 2020.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

On July 9, the

General Administration of Sport of China The General Administration of Sport () is the government agency responsible for sports in mainland China. It is subordinate to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It also administers the All-China Sports Federation and Chinese O ...

announced that no international sporting events would be held in

in 2020, except for

test events. The Chinese Skating Association was scheduled to host several events during the season, including the Grand Prix Final; the Grand Prix Final, to be hosted in

, was the only event exempt from the Chinese government's ruling, due to its status as the test event for the Olympic Games. On July 20, the ISU officially cancelled the Junior Grand Prix series. On August 4, the ISU confirmed that the Grand Prix series would proceed as scheduled during the fall, but each event would mainly invite skaters located domestically in an effort to limit travel during the global pandemic. At the time, no modified qualification procedure for the Grand Prix Final was announced. On September 30, the ISU announced the postponement of the Grand Prix Final. It believed that hosting the competitions on the scheduled dates (near year-end holidays and national championships) would have impacted a number of participants, given global travel restrictions and the potential need to quarantine on returning to their home country. On November 13, a joint adapted sports testing program developed by the Beijing 2022 planning committee, the IOC, the IPC, and various winter sports federations, including the ISU, replaced all scheduled Beijing test events. Despite the ongoing pandemic, the ISU announced that it would evaluate the possibility of finding alternative locations outside China and dates to replace the Grand Prix Final. On December 10, the ISU announced the definitive cancellation of the Grand Prix Final, alongside that of the 2021 European Championships.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2020-21 Grand Prix Of Figure Skating Final Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final ISU Junior Grand Prix Grand Prix of Figure Skating Grand Prix of Figure Skating Grand Prix of Figure Skating